2nd Sunday in Lent
February 20, 2005
Genesis 12:1-8

^12:1The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. ²"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ³I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

⁴So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. ⁵He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. ⁶Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. ⁷The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him. ⁸From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. (NIV).

The Way to God’s Blessing.

  God said to Abram, “Come follow me and I will bless you.” Through that living word, God is saying the same thing to you today. “Come follow me and I will bless you.” I am sure that all of you would like to have God’s blessing. So this morning, I want to explain that the way to receive God’s blessing is to let him bring you into the great nation he made of Abraham, into the family of Christ.

The nature of God’s blessing.

  The verb ‘to bless’ may not mean much to you. Outside of church or your prayers you might never even use the word. Yet God uses the verb ‘to bless’ many times in Scripture especially in Genesis. For example, at creation God blessed the creatures he made, including man. He made it possible for them to be fruitful and multiply. He blessed the seventh day and made it a special benefit to man. After the flood, he blessed Noah and his sons telling them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Then he promised to bless Abraham. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

  After God tested Abraham concerning his son Isaac, he blessed him again. I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me. (Genesis 22:16-18). And Abraham’s servant said of him, The LORD has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, and camels and donkeys. (Genesis 24:35).

  We see then, that in relation to people, God’s blessing is a gift, an endowment, a bestowal of things like prosperity, abundance and fertility. It’s the gift of life more like what God intended. God blessed his creation and intended it to be a world of prosperity, abundance and fertility. But Adam lost that blessing when he rebelled and incurred God’s judgment and curse, things like pain in childbirth, struggling to cultivate the earth and finally death. Yet the good news is that even after the fall, while we are under the curse, there is yet a blessing reserved for us. We still have access to God’s favour and power as also the New Testament testifies. He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. (Galatians 3:14).

How to receive God’s blessing.

  The question then is how we receive God’s blessing of prosperity, abundance and fertility. We receive it as a gift through faith in God’s promise. We receive it as part of Abraham’s family when we believe God as he did.

  By nature, we do not seek God’s blessing of an abundant life through faith in his promises. By nature we are enemies of God. We usually blame him for our troubles and trust in what we can provide for ourselves. We trust in a good education for a good job and good income. We trust in a good medical system for health and fertility. We trust in our government and private pension plans to provide a secure future.

  Now those things are not bad. In truth, they too are blessings from God. But we often separate them from God. We think that these man-made systems operate without God’s blessing and support, entirely independent of God. Then we no longer look to God for a blessing, but to what our hands have made. The true test of our trust would be if God took these things away from us. If our economy and government were destroyed by war, would we totally despair, or would we continue to look to God to find a means to bless us?

  That was Abraham’s first test. Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. Once he left his country, people and relatives, Abraham had no one but God to lean on. His only security was God’s faithfulness. He wandered through the land for some time, never gaining land and leaving behind only altars where he worshiped God. Much of the promised blessing would not be fulfilled in his life time. He would not see with his own eyes the waves of his descendants leaving Egypt, the kingdom of David and Solomon, the Christ and his resurrection. But he knew that God would complete his blessing in due time.

  And so we see the first element in the means by which we receive God’s blessing: faith. God does not bless according to human merit. He blesses because of grace, because of mercy, because of Christ. That is Paul’s argument in our epistle lesson from Romans. It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. . . . Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. (Romans 4:13, 16).

  There is a second important element to the means by which we receive God’s blessing. It comes through association with Abraham. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

  God’s blessing is given through Abraham and his offspring. Abraham understood that. When God later brings up the covenant again, Abraham complains that he’s still childless. Still later he anxiously asks God to accept Ishmael as his son. Abraham understood the need for the nation from which would come blessing for the world.

  Paul stressed the same point in his letter to the Galatians. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ. (Galatians 3:16).

  Christ is the descendant of Abraham, the fulfiller of the promises, the bearer of the full blessing. Apart from him, no one has access to God’s blessing. This was demonstrated in Abraham’s life. Twice a king tried to take his wife Sarah from him. Both times God intervened to save the woman who, by the power of God, would give birth to a very important child, just like Mary centuries later. When Abraham suggested that Ishmael might serve God’s purpose in building a nation, God refused and gave Isaac. Later when God tested Abraham and told him to sacrifice Isaac, God again intervened to save the boy, because the Christ had to come from him.

  The point is simple. There is no blessing from God outside of faith; and that faith is faith in Christ the offspring of Abraham. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me, says Jesus (John 14:6). Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved, says the Apostle Peter (Acts 4:12).

  Please understand that this limitation to faith in Christ as the only way to have God’s blessing is not a way to exclude people from God’s blessing. Rather it is a gracious necessity so that the blessing may be guaranteed, being entirely dependent on the power of God and the resurrection of Christ rather than any of our good intentions or deeds.

The present effect of God’s blessing.

  Because God’s blessing of abundant and eternal life come through faith in Christ, certain things result. First, this blessing is universal. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you. As the Samaritans noted in our Gospel lesson, We know that this man really is the Saviour of the world!

  Second, just as Abraham could receive God’s blessing only by leaving his country, people and family, so we are called to break with much in this world and journey together as part of the body of Christ. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Matthew 16:24).

  This break with the world refers primarily to giving up loyalties, attitudes, identities, and the like. It doesn’t mean we must give up our health cards, pension plans and all material goods. We don’t have to live in a puritan commune. God created all that is in the world and meant it to be part of his blessing. Abraham was a very rich man. Yet he made a complete break with the past and his homeland in order to have God’s blessing.

  Finally, the blessing will not be fully realized in our lifetime, just as for Abraham. Much is in the future as we await the return of Christ. But it will come and we will receive the full blessing promised to the world, to and through Abraham!

  Brothers and sisters, God wants to bless you. He planned it when he called Abraham and blessed him. He wants to give you a prosperous, fruitful and healthy life and in time, eternal life. This he does through faith in Christ and participation in his body, for then we are part of the great nation that God made from Abraham.